It would be important to knew if random critical hits are still in the game. It changes the importance of the better criticals perk.

You get an ui message when you get a sneaking critical hit and when you use the vats criticals. But I never got such a message when shooting normaly. So I really would like to know.

Does no one know?

I'm pretty sure they're not. And sneak attacks aren't considered crits either I think, considering two Agi perks focus on sneak attack damage

I ebleive whenever you hear a slight beep you hit a "random" critical. I might be totally wrong on this, but I always seem to do more damage when this occurs.

In NV there were also weapons like pistols which had a high crit chance and others like machine guns which had a ridiculously low crit chance, not to be confused with damage bonus on crit.

As to sneak attack damage I'm sure it is still a crit, agi perks are there because sneaking perk is agi.

They seem to be in. I am a notorious save scummer, and one out of 10 succesfull attempts to head snipe an enemy results in instant death while the rest takes out only 2/3 of the health.

I have not personally seen them.

Are you sure it wasn't a sneak attack? Personally I have never seen a critical hit outside of VATS.. sometimes they go down easier like you described, but either its a sneak attack or maybe that enemy had less HP than the others. Nevertheless I took the Better Criticals perk anyways, because my luck build is revolved around charging up the meter asap.

Yes, it was a sneak attack with VATS. But if it wasnt a crit hit, why are 9 out of 10 hits equal but one hits much harder?

Yeah, random crits are in the game. Vats will let you know if you hit a critical hit with a beeping noise and a cenematic. Usually crits will never miss, and the only reason it would is if an object was in the way.

Random Crits also appear in gun butting as well, usually in the form of a cinematic instakill.